Really.
Too hot for just about anything except swimming.
Even if I wanted to brave the heat, I can’t do my outdoor painting projects because paint doesn’t work right when it’s this hot and humid.
Luckily, it sounds like the east coast heat wave is going to end this weekend.
Until then, thank heavens for pools.
Janknitz
Tuesday 26th of July 2016
No AC for us. Fortunately we only have a few really hot days (can get into the 110's!) and it usually (but not always) cools down at night. A heat wave of a few days is inevitably followed by what I call "natural air conditioning"--a few days of fog where the temps can be in the 70's. The trick is to remember on those hot, miserable days that the fog is coming. When we have 2 weeks in a row of hot weather I start fantasizing about buying an AC.
We close the house up tight in the morning and open it as soon as the air outside is cooler than inside. With a combination of open windows and fans its usually tolerable at night (unless the skunks are roaming the neighborhood in which case open windows make it very unpleasant). We also installed two solar attic fans which have been one of the best expenditures ever. They silently draw hot air out of the attic as long as the sun is shining, and it keeps our house pleasantly cool with no expense for electricity (people often compliment our AC, but we don't have any). The only problem is that we live in a valley, so the sun is behind the hill before the air outside cools down. Those last few hours of daylight are when our house heats up.
BJS
Tuesday 26th of July 2016
I often tell my husband that I was born in the right era ... I can't imagine summers without air conditioning, and am so very thankful for it!
WilliamB
Wednesday 27th of July 2016
There was an article in Sunday's Washington Post that was widely shared, which addressed how pre-AC houses used to be built. Specifically, they had more carefully placed windows (to avoid hot summer sun but let in winter light), the right kind of shutters, wide porches and big eaves to shade the windows, windows aligned to create breezes when open, operable transoms also for breezes. They installed room and whole house fans; in less humid areas they used swamp coolers.
People instituted non-permanent changes as well. They also tended to be in the cooler rooms in the summer (basement or lower levels) and the warmer rooms in the winter (upper levels). Many North African and Middle Eastern cultures have the tradition of literally moving from one floor to the other for the seasonal change. Some households had winter and summer linens, furniture coverings, curtains, and other household fabrics. Every day they would open their houses to the relative cool in the night, and close it off as the temperature rose.
People were also more acclimated to the heat. We still adapt to the weather, depending on where we live, but not nearly as much as a couple of generations ago. Finns are in shirtsleeves in the 50s, Arabs wear long pants in all weather - of, you'll note, loose lightweight fabrics. Western-syle jeans haven't really caught on.
Kristen
Tuesday 26th of July 2016
I know! I mean, if it wasn't invented, we wouldn't know what we were missing, but still....
Christie
Tuesday 26th of July 2016
I live in North Florida (just below the Florida/Georgia line and it is HOT here too!! Our pool water is tepid but still cooler than the outside temps so we have spent a lot of time in it the last few weeks. I have been using my crockpot all week, and just the stove top (one pan) for supper tonight. Leftovers the rest of the week to eat up everything left in the fridge--chicken philly meat, Pot roast, beef-a-roni and taco meat. Anything to keep the house cooler.
JD
Wednesday 27th of July 2016
Big Bend area of Florida here. So you and I know what we are talking about! It's been a miserable summer.
gail
Tuesday 26th of July 2016
Here in the SE it is even too hot to go to the pool: the water is tepid, and you sweat as you swim!
Kristen
Tuesday 26th of July 2016
It was feeling like that yesterday...the pool was cooler than the air, but not by much!
Kris
Tuesday 26th of July 2016
We were in Illinois/Iowa over the weekend and experienced your heat wave with the wretched humidity ... we attended a wedding and the church didn't have AC. Were we glad to get to the reception site where they had the air conditioning going full blast!